Women’s Circles and the Rise of the New Feminine: Reclaiming Sisterhood, Spirituality, and Wellbeing

Abstract

This paper draws on the results of ethnographic research on 'women's circles'; women-only spaces that celebrate sisterhood and the 'feminine', including the increasingly globally popular 'Red Tent'. Women's circles are non-institutionalized, often monthly gatherings, for women to come together and relax, meditate, share stories, partake in rituals, heal, nourish, and empower themselves. Based on fieldwork and in-depth interviews with founders and organizer-practitioners of women's circles in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, the study shows how they offer a growing number of women from diverse backgrounds a space that they find lacking in secular-liberal society, out of a desire to 're/connect' with each other, their bodies, their inner selves, and sometimes with the sacred. Women's circles are indicative of women's heightened participation in the realm of subjective wellbeing culture, including both elements of spirituality and more secular 'personal growth'. Against the presumption that circles would be merely expressive of neo-liberal individualist consumer culture or retrograde gender essentialism, the paper argues they can be viewed as sites of sisterhood, solidarity, and dissent, cultivating a new type of femininity grounded in both affirmative and more oppositional forms of emerging feminist consciousness. In response to the so-called 'post-secular turn in feminism' and the growing interest for religion and, more recently, spirituality in (secular) feminist theory, the paper pleads for a re-consideration of the rise of women's spirituality/wellbeing culture in the West as a form of post-secular agency.

Introducing the Red Tent: A Discursive and Critically Hopeful Exploration of Women’s Circles in a Neoliberal Postfeminist Context

“…The line between spiritual and secular practices is often blurred. There are differing levels of commitment to 'spirituality' in women's circles (Longman, 2018), though some practices are used to make sense of life and relationships or self-discovery and personal growth (Reed and Neville, 2014). This illuminates how wellbeing practices are embedded in neoliberalism, whereby an individualised subject seeks to reveal their autonomous, authentic self (Houtman and Aupers, 2007).…”

“…Whilst CR groups were supportive spaces for sharing lived experiences, they were also sites that forged resistance against gender oppression. Women's circles deploy similar techniques regarding solidarity between women, which is presented as potentially transformative, but is not overtly political (Longman, 2018). Self-care in community might cultivate the possibility for social change in some circumstances (this might not be the aim of RTs and will not necessarily lead to activism).…”

“…Primarily, because the link between sex and gender is not so automatic, simplistic or straightforward (Butler, 1993). As Stephano (2019: 149) Longman (2018) suggests that women's circles reject 'complete biological or cultural essentialism' (p10) and embrace a new form of femininity that sanctions varied embodiment; seen as more 'experiential, ritual and symbolic' (p9) than biologically rooted. Furthermore, there are instances of explicit inclusivity on some RT webpages, 'In the Red Tent space feminism will never be used to justify transphobia and exclusion.…”

Secularity, gender, and emancipation: thinking through feminist activism and feminist approaches to the secular

“…An experiential perspective could take women's religiosities as a starting point to study how the experience of secularisation differs for various groups of people in society. In that sense, a study of women's religiosities (or secularities) creates space for specific experiences within the broader paradigm of secularisation, and as such reinforces and subverts the paradigm (i.e., Woodhead 2007;Aune, Sharma, and Vincett 2008;Longman 2018;van den Brandt 2018a). Alternatively, it could look into how individual female subjects construct religiosity while negotiating institutional and cultural discourses that prioritise the secular (i.e., Fadil 2009Fadil , 2011Jouili 2015;Schrijvers and Wiering 2018).…”

Exploring Individual and Interpersonal Level Factors Associated with Academic Success of College Students at a Women’s, Faith-based Higher Institution

“…More recent scholars are highlighting that intrapersonal growth and cognitive growth are interconnected and should be considered as such at institutions of higher education (Arora, 2017). In addition, feminist scholars are increasingly interested in women's spirituality and its impact on women's rights, calling into question that idea that all notions of spirituality are oppressive to women (Longman, 2018;Aune 2011;Nyhagen & Halsaa, 2016).…”